Columbus needs a lot more than Robert Thomas to go from a 66-point team to a winning team next year.
Right. They need to remain healthy to see if the actual progress they started to show in the 2nd half was real or just a brief blip. They need to have the year of development actually blossom into another year of better play. I get that Columbus can be the punching bag given the shit show they have been the last two years, but this team actually does have talent, just not experience. They lost the most games in the NHL when leading in the 3rd period. They were not getting blown out and spend the last 6 weeks with an AHL roster due to injuies (back to back years of awful luck).
So, yes, they do need more than Thomas but most of that should be from within. They don't need to get younger.